How Edo Speaker feted lawmakers who impeached him with pounded yam

How Edo Speaker feted lawmakers who impeached him with pounded yam
The Tuesday change of leadership in the Edo State House of Assembly has disrupted the political equation of the state, no doubt about that. While Edo North produced the governor in the person of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Edo South has the deputy governor and Hon. (Mrs) Elizabeth Atvie, just elected Speaker. Edo Central lost it after the former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tiger Victor Edoror, was impeached and how to appease the Esan now is the headache of the leadership of the APC in the state. But the gladiators in the state House of Assembly who plotted the sack of Edoror are not bothered about that.

*Impeached Speaker Edoror
Their advice to the leadership of the party is that they should be patient until after the governorship election in September since a Benin man is expected to emerge as governor either from the APC or the PDP. This followed the plea from Oshiomhole and the state Chairman of the APC, Anslem Ojezua, who is from Edo Central like the Impeached Speaker, that Edoror should be forgiven so that the Esan will not feel marginalized particularly as the governorship election beckons. The lawmakers shunned their political parties to back the impeachment. Out of the four PDP lawmakers, three signed up to the impeachment, including Patrick Iiuobe and Ezehi Igbas, who are from Edo Central like the former Speaker.

As of the day of the impeachment, 16 lawmakers signed the impeachment notice but two APC lawmakers, who initially were with Edoror, defected to the camp of the16 last Thursday, making the number 18. As it seems, the lawmakers may not have observed the alleged excesses of the ex-Speaker because majority of them, particularly the new ones, were already established men, some of them former council chairmen and politicians who have succeeded in their various businesses.

The eyes of the lawmakers opened, after they met with the governor who tried to mend the seeming face-off between members of his team and the lawmakers. Most of the Commissioners in the Oshiomhole cabinet had faced fire from the lawmakers making them to wonder whether the House is dominated by the APC or the opposition PDP. The lawmakers, who had been surviving through monthly contributions, began to accuse Oshiomhole of taking them for granted and vowed to frustrate his activities. They lamented alleged failure by the Executive to provide them with official vehicles since they were sworn-in in June 2015, non-release of funds for constituency projects and their other entitlements.

And each time they confronted the Speaker, the impression allegedly given to them was that the Executive was yet to release funds. Sensing danger, Oshiomhole invited the lawmakers penultimate week for an interaction; it was on that occasion that the governor disclosed all he had released to the Speaker. While disclosing that he had always released N54million for the running of the Assembly, and the Speaker earns about N9million monthly for the running of his office, Oshiomhole added that the Speaker receives N1million every weekend for trip to his constituency while his deputy received N500,000. The governor went on to reveal that the vehicles for the legislators were delayed because the Speaker allegedly insisted that the money for the purchase should be given him in bulk so he could handle it.

That if he had agreed with the suggestion that the vehicles be bought by instalment since the state government may not have the bulk of the money to purchase 24 cars at once, all the members would have had their cars by now. He said the issue of constituency project funds was being taken care of as that was delayed due to the drop in allocation to the state. The governor’s disclosure shocked the lawmakers. Edoror and his deputy were there helplessly watching as Oshiomhole dished out the allegations. More to come!!

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